Accessory for jointers



May 19; 1970 R. G. SORENSEN ACCESSORY FOR JOINTERS Filed Jam 5, 196? IE: 5 INVENTOR.

l nu I Ran/mu: 6. Scan/sew lrrakmsrs United States Patent O US. Cl. 144117 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The disclosure herein deals with a work guide accessary for mounting on the upright guide fence conventional on present day rotary woodworking equipment such as jointers or jointer-planers and which will serve as a safety device, and will permit the jointing and tenoning of end grain of pieces of Wood of small cross sections. The accessory is a member slidably mounted on and guided by the normal guide fence on a conventional jointer and which will move back and forth to permit passing a work piece across the rotary cutter in the jointer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention deals generally with accessories for woodworking equipment having rotary cutting elements and more particularly to a work guide which mounts on. the guide fence of jointers.

In the prior art, there are many various guides for woodworking equipment, but yet none that will attach to the normal guide fence in a conventional jointer and which can be used for securely holding wood pieces in position so that the end grade of a small strip can be jointed without fear of splintering the wood, losing the fingers, or having the work piece thrown violently from the jointer.

Heretofore the jointing of the end grain of hmall pieces of wood has been extremely hazardous both for the operator of the jointer and for anybody standing in the vicinity. The small pieces of wood tend to hook onto the cutting blades of the jointer, causing splintering and kickback. The operator, when jointing a small piece of wood, is normally in a hazardous position and it becomes more likely that his fingers will engage the cutting tool.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention deals with a guide member that can be mounted into provided means on a guide fence of a jointer and which will enable a person to safely guide small work pieces into a rotary wood cutter on the jointer. The device is easily made, it is easily adapted to existing machines, and prevents very serious accidents in the home and industrial shop. It is especially adapted for use in school Woodworking shops to reduce hazards to people that are just learning to use woodworking equipment.

A feature is that the guide member is guided in two planes, namely along the guide fence (or in a vertical plane) and also is guided in a horizontal plane to prevent it from moving downwardly toward the cutting blade as it is moved forwardly.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to present an easily made work guide accessory for conventional rotary cutting elements on woodworking jointers which can be mounted onto and guided by existing guide fences of such jointers.

One of the advantages of the present device is that it can be moved across the cutting element without damage and this permits the work to be completely cleaned up as it crosses the cutting element. No stop means are necessary to prevent the guide from engaging the cutting element.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a jointer showing a work guide made according to the present invention installed thereon;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the work guide made according to the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken as on line 3--3 in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings and the numerals of reference thereon, in FIG. 1 there is shown generally a wood jointer illustrated at 10. The jointer is of conventional design usually mounted on a stand or table 11 and having a main frame 12 mounting in a feed work surface 13 which is substantially horizontal. The frame in turn mounts a rotary cutting element 14 which includes a plurality of Wood cutting blades 15 mounted on the rotary element. The rotary element is driven at high speeds through the use of an electric motor shown schematically at 16 driving the cutting element through a V-belt or suitable drive means. A rear table section 19 is also provided. The top surface of the rear table is parallel to surface 13 but is slightly above the plane of surface 13.

The frame and table mount a guide fence 17 that extends longitudinally of the work surface 13 and normally guides one side edge of the piece being moved along the work surface 13 while it engages the cutting element 14. The fence 17 which is longitudinally extending is generally adjustable as to the included angle between the fence face 18 and the surface 13, as well as being adjustable transverse of the work surface, or in other words movable in direction substantially parallel to the axis of the rotary cutting element 14. The face 18 will be referred to as the upright face of the longitudinally extending fence. Whether it is in fact vertical or not does not affect the operation of the accessory if some particular slight angle is to be cut.

One of the problems in woodworking has been the jointing of end grain of small sticks or pieces as well as the precision forming of tenons on the end of such small pieces. Such pieces may be used for braces or similar members when tenoned. When an end grain of a small member is to be jointed, it is practically impossible to hold it so that it is absolutely perpendicular to the work face 13 and thus an absolutely perpendicular joint cannot be made. Further, it is extremely hazardous because small pieces of wood tend to get caught in the cutting blades and thrown out of the blades and the workers hands. If the work splinters or if the work slips, a mans hands can get into the cutting blade.

In order to permit precision work, particularly on small items and particularly in use for jointing end grain on small pieces of wood, the present invention has been advanced. It comprises a guide member 20 that has a base 21, a front or work engaging face member 22, a side guide member 23 and a handle member 24. :In addition, a block of wood 25 is attached to the bottom of the base 21.

The side member 23 has a plane surface which is perpendicular to the front face 22 and is also substantially perpendicular to the bottom of the box 21 and block of wood 25. The side member includes an inverted J -shaped guide hook 26 that fits over an upper lip surface 27 of the longitudinal fence and the lip 28 of the J-hook 27 fits down into a provided groove 30 milled into the top of the longitudinal fence. The base 31 of the J-hook 26 is an inner surface that mates with the surface 27. The

surface on the inside of the base 31 is also perpendicular to the front face or surface 22 against which the work piece rests.

When the member 20 is in place, it is supported on the surface 27 so that there is a space indicated at 32 between the top surface 13 of the in feed jointer table and the bottom of the wood block 25. This space 32 is sufficiently high so that as the member 20 passes over the jointer cutting element 14, the blades 15 will not cut into the wood block 25. Also, as can be seen, the surface 18 of the longitudinal fence is used as a guide for the outer surface of the wall 23 to hold the front face 22 pedpendicular to the surface 18 of the fence. There are two guides for the member 20, a first surface 27 and a second upright surface 18 so that the unit is held in alignment with and perpendicular to the work surface 13,

A work piece illustrated in dotted lines at 33 is then placed against the face 22 of member and fence 18 of longitudinal fence 17 and is held in place with the operators hand. Normally, the left hand will be used for holding the small work piece so that the thumb of the hand is behind the member 22 and the fingers will hold the work piece against the face 22. Also the work piece will be urged against the surface 18 to hold it in perfect alignment with the table 13. The bottom end of the work piece which has a small cross section will be abutted against the table surface 13 and the member 20 will then be slid with the free hand grasping the handle or hand grip in direction as indicated by the arrow 34. The work piece will then be moved across the rotary cutting element (the motor 16 will have been started and the cutting element will be rotating) to do a perfect job of jointing without splintering. It can be seen that the work piece is thus securely held between the two surfaces 18 and 22 and if it does tend to kick back at all kick back will be resisted by the mass of the longitudinal fence 17 as well as the mass of the member 20. The member 20 will be held by the free hand to further reinforce and prevent any kick backs. If something should happen so that the hand grasping the work piece is moved, the natural tendency is to close the fingers toward the thumb. The fingers will thus be moved away from the cutting element, further increasing the natural built-in safety of the device.

Small work pieces can also be laid on their sides against the surfaces 22 and 13 and guided across the outer end of the cutting element for tenoning. The thumb is again behind the front face 22. When using the guides member 20, the hands can be spaced away from the cutting element and held in place with the thumb behind the face member 22 to prevent the hands from accidentally being thrust into the cutting element.

It should be noted that in FIG. 3 the concept of having two guide surfaces for the member is easily shown. Again, it can also be easily seen that in place of milling a groove and providing the surface 27 for guiding the member 20, a rod or similar guide rail could be installed adjacent the top edge of the longitudinal fence 17 and a corresponding hook member or guide member installed on the vertical wall 23 of the work guide 20. This would provide a guide for holding the member 20 in proper position and holding the front face 22 perpendicular to the surface 13. Thus a rod attached to the work fence and a mating guide on the member 20 would fulfill the requirements for being means to hold the acces sory member 20 in proper orientation with respect to a horizontal plane.

Further, the groove 30 has a side wall surface which engages the lip 28 to prevent the member 20 from moving transversely of the table 13, or in other words,

slipping out of place. A guide shaft or guide rod and corresponding cylindrical or part-cylindrical member on the work holder would also fulfill this requirement. This is very important because the hoder has to be held from transverse movement with respect to the table in order to be a safe device. It cannot slip out, therefore it has to have some mechanical stop means to prevent it from moving transversely once it is in place on the jointer.

What is claimed is:

1. In a wood working implement having a non-translating rotary cutting element rotating about an axis and operable to remove a layer of material from the face of the work-piece, a stationary table having a surface substantially parallel to the axis of rotation of said cutting element for supporting a work piece moving into said cutting element, and a guide fence having a guide face extending in direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation of said cutting element and capable of being fixedly oriented in a predetermined angular position with respect to the surface of the table, the improvement comprising a work holding guide member, a groove defined in the top portions of the fence having a first side surface adjacent and parallel to said guide face, said work holding guide member having a first side member a planar surface adapted to engage said guide face of said fence, a hook member on the side member having a surface at right angles to said side member and adapted to rest on the top edge of said fence, and a lip member adapted to engage said groove and fit against said first side surface of said groove to permit closely guided sliding movement of said side member along the guide face of said guide fence, a work engaging face member fixed to said side member and extending at substantially right angles to said side member, said face member having a front surface positioned at substantially right angles to the guide face of said guide fence and parallel to the axis of rotation of said cutting element along a major portion of the table width when said side member is positioned with the hook attached thereto in the groove on the fence, a base member attached to said side member and to said work engaging face member and extending at right angles thereto, and having a bottom surface positioned substantially parallel to the table when the hook member is positioned in said groove, and a block of material capable of being cut by said rotary cutting element fixed to the bottom surface of said base member and having a bottom surface substantially parallel to said table, one edge surface thereof being aligned with the front surface of the work engaging face member and being spaced above said table with the hook member in position in said groove a distance sufficient to clear said rotary cutting element under normal operation, said work holding guide member being slidably mounted for movement along said fence toward and away from said rotary cutting element.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,581,818 1/1952 Somerset 144253 686,339 11/1901 Richie.

1,457,492 6/ 1923 Bloodgood.

2,696,852 12/ 1954 Dunton.

2,771,920 11/ 1956 Ambelang.

3,348,591 10/1967 Carrasco 143-168 GIL WEIDENFELD, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

